The family of an eight-year-old girl says it feels like she has been born all over again after a donor heart was found just as doctors feared time was running out.

Katelyn McAleavy from Whitehaven was rushed into the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle on Sunday after the call her parents had been waiting for. Surgeons say she is making fantastic progress, just three days after surgery.

Her mother Amy spoke to us from the children's heart unit a short time ago and told us she still can't believe it has happened after 10 agonising months hoping a new heart could be found for Katelyn.